Life and Death
by Playdonicus
Summary: A short story about what happens after you die in the 74th Hunger Games. It's creepy and weird, so be it. Slightly rushed so forgive any mistakes/bad storyline s .


The spear didn't hurt as much as she had expected. A sharp burst of pain, followed by an ice-cold numbness that spread throughout her body.

The head of the spear remained lodged in her stomach, warmth flowed out of the wound with each passing second. She looked up at Katniss, whose eyes betray her grief.

She knows this is it, the inevitable has arrived. She reaches for Katniss' hand and asks her to sing. A flash of sorrow ripples over Katniss' face, who thinks for a moment before she begins.

Rue closes her eyes as images of the grassy meadow manifest in her minds eye. For the first time in days she is at peace, this hellish world she has been thrown into cannot harm her anymore. The boy from District 1 might have had a small victory, but ultimately she is the winner. She knew she didn't have a chance of winning, now she gets to be free. No more Capitol, no more Hunger Games, no more running. She is free.

Her body gets colder, her thoughts begin to muddle. Will her brothers and sisters be okay? What will happen if they get picked in a future reaping? How will her mother and handle her death? What happens now? She hopes the place she's going to is better than the one she is leaving.

Katniss' song gets harder to understand; only the tune is audible now.

This is it.

Rue takes in one last, difficult breath. Her body shudders one last time…

…voices….she can hear voices...her brain is unable to process what is being said.

"_She's waking up, the serum has worked"_

"_Proceed to phase 2, inject the mobility inhibitors and move her to recovery."_

Rue feels a slight sting before her consciousness fades to black.

Rue fades between stages of being awake and a strange realm of consistent beeping and hushed voices. Fingers prod her every so often.

She awakens quickly, sharply taking in breaths. She is in a bed with white sheets, in the middle of an almost empty room. A few strange machines covered in lights stand next to the bed, beeping every few seconds. There is a single door on one of the walls, but no windows.

There is a clear tube with a light blue fluid running out of one of the machines and into her arm. Her wrists and ankles are fastened down.

As she looks around the room, wondering where she is, the door opens and a young man with a white coat walks in. His dark hair is slicked backwards; wire framed glasses hold it in place. In his hands he holds a silver clipboard, which he reads off of as he walks.

"_Hello Rue, how are you feeling?"_ He smiles at her with perfect teeth.

"_Tired…where am I? Is this heaven?"_

The man laughs and continues to flick through pages on his clipboard.

"_No my dear, this is a recovery room. We brought you here after the nasty incident with the spear._ He moves the glasses onto his nose and looks over the machines next to the bed.

Questions begin to flood Rue's mind, she blurts them all out at once.

"_How am I still alive? Are the games finished? Is Katniss okay? Did she win? Is my family alright? Can I go home?"_

The man turns to look at her, sitting his clipboard on one of the machines and folds his arms.

"_We collected your body and resuscitated you after Katniss left. We've been performing tests on you for the last few days. The games are still taking place and Katniss is still alive. We'd let you watch but unfortunately there isn't enough time. We have a surprise planned for Katniss and we need your help."_

"_I get to see her?" _

Rue is glad she might get to see Katniss again, but doesn't understand what is going on. This isn't normal for a Hunger Games is it? To keep all the tributes alive even after death.

"_Oh you'll be __**seeing**__ her very soon!"_ The man pushes a button on one of the machines and after a minute or so another man, slightly older, walks into the room. He hands the man in the white coat a small, black, rectangular box and then leaves.

"_You see Rue, Mr. Crane had a fabulous idea for the games, one of the best ideas he's had yet. And we need you, and the other tributes, to help us with it. That's why we revived you all; for it to work we need living subjects! So you get to live for another whole day! Isn't that great"_

He grins at her before holding up the small box, he begins to push buttons that run along its side.

"_Everyone else is alive too? Have the rules been changed? Do we all get to congratulate the winner and __live__ this year? It was all a show for the Capitol, wasn't it?"_

The man looks up at her, just as a holographic image shimmers into place above the small box.

"_Oh sweetie, I'm sorry I got your hopes up! What I meant to say was that we need living subjects for the splicing to work. It's the Hunger Games after all, everyone has to die!"_

Rue doesn't understand…why would they bring her back? Perhaps it's another test…maybe this is the arena and she is still in the games? She looks at the hologram in front of her, it looks like a large sack of potatoes that someone as put legs on. As it spins around she sees that it is actually a large, muscular dog-like creature.

"_W-what is that?"_

"_Why that's a Mutt silly, why else do you think we needed you? As I said, you'll be seeing Katniss very soon. For this creature to live, it needs pieces of you. Isn't that cool! It's almost ready to meet Katniss, unfortunately for you sweetie, it really needs your eyes."_

As he says this he moves closer to the machines and pushes a button, the colour of the fluid in the tube changes to green, and Rue begins to feel sleepy. She panics, what does he mean they need pieces of her? She tries to get up and escape but the restraints are too tight, she begins to thrash, screaming at the man to let her go. He vision begins to go dark. The last this she sees is a number of people walking through the door, wheeling a table with a large creature asleep on top. Next to it a small trolley of knives and needles. Tears stream down her face, she wills herself to stay awake. The young mans face appears over her.

"_Don't worry little one, soon you'll be with Katniss again."_

As Rue lies there, unable to move, she thinks of Katniss. He dark hair and deadly aim with a bow. She wishes for her win, she begs the universe to let Katniss win. The song Katniss sang to her rings in her ears, as she falls asleep for the last time.


End file.
